A sneak peek at 9 women-led startups that raised funding in 2016

2016 has started off on a better note for women entrepreneurs, at least in the area of venture capital funding. In March 17 startups with a at least a woman co-founder raised funding versus six in the same period last year. This is close to a 183 percent growth.

Funding raised by startups funded or co-founded by women

However, while these numbers look like a big leap, they still are nowhere close to what startups founded by male founders and co-founders raised. It nevertheless, is a step in the right direction.

Here is a list of nine women-led startups that have raised funding late last year and early this year:

Tarusa World

Founded by Rupali Gupta, Tarusa World is an online platform for handicrafts. Last month, the startup raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Mohit Gulati. In several reports, Rupali said that the investment will be used to add more inventory, designs and scale the brand. Started in 2012, Tarusa World works on an inventory-based model, where the products are designed and retailed in-house.

Zoctr

A home healthcare startup founded by Nidhi Saxena, Zoctr raised a funding of $1 million from the founder of SPA Capital Sandeep Parwal and Founder of Organic Wellness Krishnan Gupta and a few other angel investors. The Mumbai-based startup offers different services like health check-up, tele-consulting, home lab pickups, online pharma and other emergency support.

Transcell Biologicals

Started in 2009, Hyderbad-based Transcell raised an undisclosed amount of funding from the Indian Angel Network, led by Sanjay Jesrani. Founded by stem cell researcher Dr Subhadra Dravida, Transcell said it would use this investment to develop more products for therapeutic and non-therapeutic areas in stem cell based products. Transcell is known to build stem cell based products and is working on creating an India-patient specific repository for R&D.

FreshMenu

Bengaluru-based FreshMenu raised Rs 110 crore in a new round of funding from Zodius Capital, with participation from existing investor LightSpeed Ventures. Rashmi Daga, Founder of FreshMenu, said the round of funding will be used for team building, growth and strengthening of the brand. Started in 2015, FreshMenu follows a hub-and-spoke model with centralised kitchens in each locality they service.

medECUBE

In March this year, medECUBE raised Series A funding of Rs 25 crores from Artiman Ventures, a Silicon Valley based venture fund. Founded by Dilpreet Brar, medECUBE offers care coordination services to several domestic and international patients. With this round the team will be looking to expand their presence and services.

Heads Up for Tails

Founded by Rashi Narang, this startup makes a line of upscale, utility-based products for pets with a strong focus on design. This includes products such as dog beds, apparel, collars, accessories, toys, grooming products, treats, as well as a line for pet lovers. There is also a strong focus on customisation and personalisation based on what the customer is looking for. Heads Up For Tails has raised its seed round of funding from HNIs.

Vanity Cube

Renu Bisht, Co-founder of Vanity Cube, was started with a personal need of getting affordable and quality beauty services due to time crunch. After identifying the pain-point, the duo collaborated and started working on VanityCube. Renu added, “We took a few months to put our website together and bring salon artists on board.” The startup raised a pre-series A funding of $250,000 from Unicorn Ventures.

Funcart

The Delhi-based online store for party supplies raised seed funding of Rs 50 lakh from HNIs. Founded in 2015 by Ritika Nangia, the platform offers interesting and cost-effective party supplies for different events and occasions. The funding will be used to increase product offerings, infrastructure and technology.

Styledotme

Delhi-based fashion app, Styledotme founded by Meghna Saraogi raised seed funding from IAN, which was led by Ajay Gupta. The app is available on iOS and Android platforms and allows its consumers to instantly poll and get votes on his or her fashion choices. The app also gives expert advice from various bloggers and stylists. This round of funding will help in building the tech team and refining the app.

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